I think you can install Windows from a PC and then run it on potentially any computer since it's in fact a Windows To Go installation.
Let me know if you're successful with that...

No luck. Gave it a shot doing the whole thing from a Windows PC and wasn't able to make any progress. Even tweaked every available setting in the BIOS to see if there was some sort of conflict, but it didn't seem to help.

FWIW: I was able to successfully use this technique (BleepToBleep) to create a working Windows 8 system on a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt with Crucial M4 256GB SSD. It is not, however, able to co-exist with an internal Windows installation on my iMac as I described earlier, once prepped, after reboot it simply defaults to my existing Windows install rather than performing the external Windows install.

I moved the "prepped" Thunderbolt drive to a Macbook Air which had no BootCamp installation and it proceeded to boot into the startup/installation and completed normally. To answer my own question ... I could not use the external Windows installation with VMware Fusion as a virtual-machine since apparently it can't be located without a boot loader on the internal OS X boot drive. I guess I expected this however.

I have a LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD drive on which i have installed Windows 7 (of course this also works for Windows 8 or even Vista... The installation is fully independent from the internal Mac drives. Absolutely nothing is installed onto the internal drives.

For anyone else that is interested in my method... Read on

There are some requirements to get this working of course:

-Access to a Windows (7 or 8) computer.
-An external Thunderbolt drive which also has a USB connector (unless you have access to a Windows computer which has a Thunderbolt port. Or you could open up the external case take out the SSD and connect it to a Windows computer in any other way..)
-A Windows driver for the Thunderbolt drive.

(The LaCie Rugged SSD has a USB connector and comes with a Windows driver, which is the reason i chose this one.)

I got everything working up until the point where I reboot with the prepared drive connected to perform the Windows installation. Once I do that, I get the startup screens of Windows 7 where the colored blobs start to fly together, followed by a very-quick blue screen, then a system reboot.

I'm trying to install Windows 7 X64 using an external laptop-sized hard drive in an old Kingston USB2 enclosure (figured I'd try on that before investing in a USB3 or Thunderbolt enclosure).

I also tried to boot to SafeMode, but it had the same result. Think the enclosure matters? Not quite sure what to do now.

This is on a new 2012 iMac w/ 3tb fusion.

Thanks for the guide - I feel like I'm very close.

The USB drivers aren't loaded in this stage of the Windows boot, which is why you get the blue screen... Thunderbolt drivers are loaded very early during a Windows boot (just like Sata and RAID drivers).

The USB drivers aren't loaded in this stage of the Windows boot, which is why you get the blue screen... Thunderbolt drivers are loaded very early during a Windows boot (just like Sata and RAID drivers).

Is there any work-around for that, or am I just out of luck trying to do this with a USB drive?

Is there any work-around for that, or am I just out of luck trying to do this with a USB drive?

Windows 8 has a To Go option... maybe USB drivers are loaded at an earlier stage in Windows 8 compared to Windows 7.

But i know a workaround You can edit the Windows 7 registry in which you can force the USB drivers load in an earlier stage, i tried it once myself and it worked (at least for USB2, never tried it for a USB3 drive but i think that won't make any difference.) Of course right now you aren't able to edit the registry because windows won't boot. Fortunately you can edit the registry offline if you have access to another Windows computer. It's been a few months ago that i tried this so i have to look up the information for you (which registry key), i'll get on it right away

I have a LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD drive on which i have installed Windows 7 (of course this also works for Windows 8 or even Vista... The installation is fully independent from the internal Mac drives. Absolutely nothing is installed onto the internal drives.

For anyone else that is interested in my method... Read on

There are some requirements to get this working of course:

-Access to a Windows (7 or 8) computer.
-An external Thunderbolt drive which also has a USB connector (unless you have access to a Windows computer which has a Thunderbolt port. Or you could open up the external case take out the SSD and connect it to a Windows computer in any other way..)
-A Windows driver for the Thunderbolt drive.

(The LaCie Rugged SSD has a USB connector and comes with a Windows driver, which is the reason i chose this one.)

Nice writeup ... thanks for posting. I am interested in the LaCie driver you inject into the Windows boot ... is that just for the USB interface or does it also enable the Thunderbolt interface? I wish there was a Windows driver for the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and perhaps the one you used might work there as well.

Also wondering if you have tried adding a virtual-machine such as VMware or Parallels to the bootable Windows installation for vm access from within OS X? I have been unable to do so from any "standalone" external Windows installation which didn't have a OS X boot disk Windows boot partition.

Just successfully got Windows 8 installed on my external Touro USB 3.0 hard drive. Literally no issues. I followed the same process as the Windows 7 guide - just used the evaluation Windows 8 WIM file for my install.

Looks like I'm upgrading to Windows 8 whether I want to or not for gaming.

Nice writeup ... thanks for posting. I am interested in the LaCie driver you inject into the Windows boot ... is that just for the USB interface or does it also enable the Thunderbolt interface? I wish there was a Windows driver for the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and perhaps the one you used might work there as well.

Also wondering if you have tried adding a virtual-machine such as VMware or Parallels to the bootable Windows installation for vm access from within OS X? I have been unable to do so from any "standalone" external Windows installation which didn't have a OS X boot disk Windows boot partition.

-howard

Hello Howard,

I inject the driver into the Windows image file so Windows recognizes the Thunderbolt drive/controller at Windows 7 startup.

When i boot Windows from the Thunderbolt drive i see the name of the chip/controller right before Windows start, i believe it's an Asmedia controller. I could look up the exact name if you want. It might be compatible with the Lacie Little Big disk.

I don't really know what you mean with the VM part. You want a VM on the external drive and be able to access it from Mac OS?

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by uptownnyc

Just successfully got Windows 8 installed on my external Touro USB 3.0 hard drive. Literally no issues. I followed the same process as the Windows 7 guide - just used the evaluation Windows 8 WIM file for my install.

Looks like I'm upgrading to Windows 8 whether I want to or not for gaming.

Nice! So i think you've confirmed that Windows 8 boots from USB natively

I just read this somewhere: All of LaCie's Little Big Disk models employ the same Intel CV82524EF/L Thunderbolt and Marvell 88SE9182 SATA controllers.

So you probably need an Intel Thunderbolt driver for the above chip.

Correction, i just found out that the LaCie Rugged driver is nothing more than the driver for the ASmedia Sata controller which resides in the LaCie enclosure. So the bottomline is that i injected the required Sata driver and all the iMac drivers into the wim file. Meaning that if you can find the Marvell Sata/Raid controller driver, the Little Big Disk might actually work with Windows.

Correction, i just found out that the LaCie Rugged driver is nothing more than the driver for the ASmedia Sata controller which resides in the LaCie enclosure. So the bottomline is that i injected the required Sata driver and all the iMac drivers into the wim file. Meaning that if you can find the Marvell Sata/Raid controller driver, the Little Big Disk might actually work with Windows.

Thanks for the research and information ... I will have to do a little experimenting now.

The LaCie "LBD" boots fine in OS X, and is fast with RAID-0 SSDs, but what I am trying to create is a single OS X SSD along with a single Bootable Windows SSD, all in the dual-drive Thunderbolt enclosure. If I can get the Windows driver to work ... I will have it!

Thanks for the research and information ... I will have to do a little experimenting now.

The LaCie "LBD" boots fine in OS X, and is fast with RAID-0 SSDs, but what I am trying to create is a single OS X SSD along with a single Bootable Windows SSD, all in the dual-drive Thunderbolt enclosure. If I can get the Windows driver to work ... I will have it!

Thanks,
-howard

I know where you can download the Marvell controller driver, if you haven't found it already. I know the Asrock X79 Extreme 7 motherboard also had this controller, you can download a Windows driver from the Asrock website.

I know where you can download the Marvell controller driver, if you haven't found it already. I know the Asrock X79 Extreme 7 motherboard also had this controller, you can download a Windows driver from the Asrock website.

I see that LaCie just posted a Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Windows driver on the support page today (2/26/13)

I know this thread is almost a year old, but installing Windows 8 on an external hard drive to use with my Mac 13" Retina is something I really want to do in the near future. I have a Lacie Rugged thunderbolt HD. Im wondering if once I install Windows onto one of the partitions in my Lacie drive, will I be able to use that same partition as I otherwise normally would?

For example, can I mount my drive onto OSX and use the windows partition to save files. I'm wondering this in order to figure out how large I want the windows partition to be. I figure that if I can use the windows partition to save files (like mp3s) from OSX and then read them on windows then I can have some flexibility on how I use the drive and the windows partition.

Also, once I install windows, will I be able to delete the Windows Boot Manager Partition, or does it have to stay?

The speed will be excellent. SSDs are all faster than hard drives. The LaCie is not the fastest driver, however. If you want the absolute fastest,
you can buy an internal SSD (SanDisk Ultra Plus or Extreme series, Intel 830, etc) and put it in a Thunderbolt enclosure or sled. I did this for my Windows install. I also created a detailed install guide

http://kevtg-compuproductive.tumblr.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by iManni

hmmm i will do the same , lacie rugged 256 ssd but with Thunderbolt

i´m not sure if i should order the lacie(329 euro apple.at) if it does not work,can anyone say about the speed of Windows 8 on a SSD?

The speed will be excellent. SSDs are all faster than hard drives. The LaCie is not the fastest driver, however. If you want the absolute fastest,
you can buy an internal SSD (SanDisk Ultra Plus or Extreme series, Intel 830, etc) and put it in a Thunderbolt enclosure or sled. I did this for my Windows install. I also created a detailed install guide